I've seen the moons of Jupiter

[IronWing]

My handheld technique could use some refinement, too much caffeine. By eye, I could see some of the banding on Jupiter.

The moon moon came out pretty good.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Cool!

I really need to figure out a way to fasten my telephoto lens in a more secure way that also allows me fine tuning. Standard tripods are crap and too wobbly. They rely on only 1 tiny screw.

Got Mars and Saturn years back though:





And moon:



Oh and this is a cool vid I took a while back:

Focusing that lens is tricky though just touching it makes it wobble all over the place. I really need to figure out a better way. Thinking something motorized with servos or something that uses timing belts so it's more solid.

 

[spacejamz]

Focusing that lens is tricky though just touching it makes it wobble all over the place. I really need to figure out a better way. Thinking something motorized with servos or something that uses timing belts so it's more solid.

I hang a 15lb weight from my tripod (it has a hook to do this) and then set a 10 sec delay...does a good job removing the wobble when using a my 150-600mm tamron lens...

 

[spacejamz]

Last night was the first time I have tried to look at something other than moon in the night sky...I was really amazed that red star (antares) was really more red than the other stars (was looking through binoculars)...I could see Jupiter's moons...

Pretty sure my pics will not turn out very good but I will try taking a couple tonight..(should have done it on the 12th)...

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hang a 15lb weight from my tripod (it has a hook to do this) and then set a 10 sec delay...does a good job removing the wobble when using a my 150-600mm tamron lens...

That's basically what I do too, but it's still tricky to adjust as there's no easy way to fine tune and it's still relying on that 1 screw so no matter how much weight you put it still wants to wobble at the mount point. You're basically loosing it up then manually moving it back and forth but when you let go it moves too much and you lose your spot etc. Huge pain. I had a telescope as a kid and it had these knobs you could turn to fine tune, need some kind of mechanism like that.

Or I might just actually buy a telescope that I can hookup a camera to, then all problems solved. Telescope stand is going to be more sturdy I imagine.

I also tried using two tripods, one on lens and one on camera to give me 2 points of contact, it was more sturdy, but much harder to adjust.

 

[IronWing]

I was handholding the camera over a spotting scope. I have a proper mount that I may try tonight with a timer.

 

[sdifox]

Handheld? Shit I cannot even shoot traffic lights with out blurring, forget the moon.

 

[NoTine42]

Handheld? Shit I cannot even shoot traffic lights with out blurring, forget the moon.

Full, or mostly full moon isn’t too bad because it’s actually photographically bright and can use higher shutter speeds than anything else in the night sky.
(Lunar eclipse, on the other hand is way darker and requires much, much slower shutter speeds that I couldn’t establish quickly enough in -20F during this winter’s eclipse)

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh right I forgot about the eclipse. I actually did manage to get a few shots, and yeah it was freaking cold that night. I'm pretty sure I did hand held since it was faster, I just did a fast shutter speed and high enough ISO if I recall, and then some post processing to bring it out.

 

[IronWing]

More better with the camera mount.

 

[SaltyNuts]

Good LORD those pics are cool!

 

[spacejamz]

guess I need something with a lot further reach than just a 600mm lens...alot I got was a little dot of Jupiter... super windy out so no way I was ever gonna get a perfectly still camera...

this is probably as it as it gets for me tonight...

 

[IronWing]

The view through the scope with the naked eye is so much better than the pics I got. You can clearly see that four moons are still in view when peering through the scope. On the last pic, you can barely see the moon closest to Jupiter at about one o'clock.

 

[spacejamz]

The view through the scope with the naked eye is so much better than the pics I got. You can clearly see that four moons are still in view when peering through the scope. On the last pic, you can barely see the moon closest to Jupiter at about one o'clock.

I can easily make out the the big moons with my binoculars...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Woah that's awesome, can even see the colour of Jupiter and the lines.

It's one thing to know that there is stuff out there, like other planets, but to actually see for yourself is always so cool.

 

[BoomerD]

Hell, that's nothing. i've seen the ass-teroids around Uranus...







(OK, seriously, some nice pics in this thread)